Colin C. Edgerton, MD, FACP, RhMSUS, is a practicing rheumatologist with Low Country Rheumatology in Charleston, S.C., a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the Medical College of Georgia—Georgia Regents University, and assistant professor of medicine, Uniformed Services, University of the Health Sciences.
Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 99446–99449 were created in 2014 to capture the time spent by a consultant who is not in direct contact with the patient at the time of service. An interprofessional telephone/internet consultation (ITC) is defined as an assessment and management service in which a patient’s treating provider (e.g., primary or qualified…
Think back to your time as a trainee. Do you remember an interaction with a consultant in which you learned something, felt your opinion was heard, were empowered to collaborate with the consulting team and knew you were providing outstanding care? We suspect a number of examples come to mind, regardless of the amount of…
A 60-year-old woman with a six-month history of retroperitoneal fibrosis transfers her care to you. She initially presented with severe bilateral flank pain radiating to the abdomen and chest. A computerized tomography (CT) angiogram of the abdomen demonstrated an infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm surrounded by a thick inflammatory rind entangling the left renal vein and…
With the elimination of consultation codes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), many rheumatology practices are finding it a heavy burden to bill the appropriate codes for the time they spend with patients.